Way of Separation

Product Notes

The music I create represents two worlds: mine and that of my ancestral past. My goal as I set out to work on my first recording in the late 90s was to collect songs that represented the perspective of women. As I forged ahead with the project I realized that it wasn't just the woman's point of view that was of interest to me -- I found myself attracted to songs that transcended the locale of the old world and carried a meaning for those of us situated in contemporary society. As a child of an immigrant family my life has always been between two places: the world of our Ukrainian tradition and world of the American cultural mosaic. There were times that those worlds were completely irreconcilable and perhaps it was those moments that provided the greatest motivation to search for meaning and identity that defined the cultural fence upon which I sit. One unintended consequence of my search was the discovery of the thematic thread of separation. What I learned was that separation is not always sad, though it is characterized by permanency. It is emotional and transformative. It is sometimes difficult to live through. People change. Situations change. As we learn and navigate our way through life our values change and impact how we view the world. Sometimes our new visions and experiences estrange us from those close to us. And sometimes they just bring us together in different ways. The purpose of this recording was to give the richness and depth of traditional Ukrainian folk music a contemporary voice. The texts of all the songs remain as I found them in the various collections I searched. Some of the music is original, the rest is arrangements of folk melodies. The recording itself is a layering of acoustic, electronic and vocal tracks. The primary acoustic instruments used are the bandura, a Ukrainian folk instrument, and guitar. The rest are electronic. And the voice is mine.

The music I create represents two worlds: mine and that of my ancestral past. My goal as I set out to work on my first recording in the late 90s was to collect songs that represented the perspective of women. As I forged ahead with the project I realized that it wasn't just the woman's point of view that was of interest to me -- I found myself attracted to songs that transcended the locale of the old world and carried a meaning for those of us situated in contemporary society. As a child of an immigrant family my life has always been between two places: the world of our Ukrainian tradition and world of the American cultural mosaic. There were times that those worlds were completely irreconcilable and perhaps it was those moments that provided the greatest motivation to search for meaning and identity that defined the cultural fence upon which I sit. One unintended consequence of my search was the discovery of the thematic thread of separation. What I learned was that separation is not always sad, though it is characterized by permanency. It is emotional and transformative. It is sometimes difficult to live through. People change. Situations change. As we learn and navigate our way through life our values change and impact how we view the world. Sometimes our new visions and experiences estrange us from those close to us. And sometimes they just bring us together in different ways. The purpose of this recording was to give the richness and depth of traditional Ukrainian folk music a contemporary voice. The texts of all the songs remain as I found them in the various collections I searched. Some of the music is original, the rest is arrangements of folk melodies. The recording itself is a layering of acoustic, electronic and vocal tracks. The primary acoustic instruments used are the bandura, a Ukrainian folk instrument, and guitar. The rest are electronic. And the voice is mine.